Technical glitch grounds Air India Delhi bound passengers

More than 250 Delhi-bound passengers from Chennai were stranded for nearly nine hours after the aircraft AI043 was grounded due to technical glitches.The ordeal for passengers, some of them bound for international destinations, started when their flight scheduled to depart at 9.10 pm on Wednesday night could not be refuelled.

"We had been trying till 1 pm to rectify the trouble. But after that the officials gave up and the flight was grounded," said an Air India spokesperson.  

After the flight got grounded, Air India officials made alternate arrangements for the



passengers. A total of 150 passengers were provided with alternate flights to Delhi in this morning."The were booked in AI440, which departed at 6 am and by AI443 which departed at 8.56 am," said the spokesperson.

For the remaining passengers, hotel accomodation were provided while those volunteering to go back home were offered taxi fares.The flight is marketed as Codeshare flight with Ethiopian Airlines 1763, Turkish Airlines 8477 and Air Canada 6429.

The international passengers have been rebooked for Thursday's flight, said Air India spokesperson.